PHILADELPHIA — In terms of being an up-and-down player for the 76ers, Lorenzo Brown fits the bill in more ways than one.

Brown, the Sixers’ swift backup point guard, wasn’t with the team for its practice Thursday at PCOM. Instead, he was in Reno, Nev., at the NBA D-League Showcase. There, he played with the Sixers’ affiliate in a 113-108 loss to Texas.

Monday, Brown had been called up from the 87ers, ending a 12-day assignment in Delaware. By Thursday, he had been sent back down. But terming his up-and-down act a demotion wouldn’t be appropriate, said Sixers coach Brett Brown.

“Going back and forth, that’s no embarrassment. That’s no demotion,” the coach said. “It’s part of young players’ evolution. It’s part of those two particular players’ paths. Communicating it to them, on what they do while they’re down there, as a coach, is important.”

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The Sixers (12-23), who had two days between games, felt it was in their best interest to get Lorenzo Brown some minutes elsewhere. (It ended up being 41 minutes, to be exact. Not like the particular tally matters much, seeing as Brett Brown said he plans to use the 23-year-old Friday against visiting Detroit.)

Nonetheless, using the D-League as a platform upon which the Sixers can grant court time to their 12th and 13th men will be a common occurrence, Brett Brown said. So for guys like Lorenzo Brown, Elliot Williams and the like, buckle up and have your frequent-flyer cards handy.

“That is the plan. You’re going to see that a lot as this season winds up,” Brett Brown said. “We’ve said from Day 1, this is an educated science project and we’re going through it. We’re going to look at different people, bring them in, bring them out, keep the ones and polish the ones we think have value and move on.”

Brown went on a little further, detailing the Sixers’ plan for evaluating talent – which goes beyond players in the D-League.

“There’s a core group that stays as the core group, but those bottom feeders, those fringe-type players, we’ll probably have a look at the world,” Brown said. “There are a lot of parts of the world that are shutting down. Leagues are ending. We want to become a global type of team where we have a real focus on what’s going on around the rest of the leagues around the world. All of those things make what you said true: There will be movement.”